The Pygmy Shrew, Sorex hoyi winnemana 



(Insectivora: Soricidae), from the Coastal Plain 



of North Carolina 



Thomas M. Padgett 



North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission 



Route 2, Box 583A 



Elizabethtown, North Carolina 28337 



AND 



Robert K. Rose 



Department of Biological Sciences 



Old Dominion University 



Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0266 



ABSTRACT — Sorex hoyi winnemana from two counties in 

 extreme northeastern North Carolina represent the first docu- 

 mented specimens of pygmy shrews from the Coastal Plain 

 and the first collected in North Carolina in 50 years. The 15 

 pygmy shrews were collected from a variety of habitat types, 

 ranging from shrubby-grassy fields in ditched peaty wetlands 

 to managed pine plantations and upland hardwood forests. 



The smallest of the North American long-tailed shrews (genus 

 Sorex) is Sorex hoyi, aptly named the pygmy shrew. At 2-3 g with 

 a total length of 70-86 mm, of which 25-33 mm is tail, the pygmy 

 shrew is the smallest mammal in North Carolina and among the 

 world's smallest mammals. The masked shrew (Sorex cinereus) and 

 the southeastern shrew (S. longirostris) are similar in appearance and 

 in proportions, but both are somewhat larger (Webster et al. 1985). 

 Besides having slightly longer bodies and tails, S. cinereus and S. 

 longirostris have five prominent unicuspids, whereas the pygmy shrew 

 has only three distinct unicuspids, the third and fifth being greatly 

 reduced. 



The pygmy shrew is distributed throughout the northern tier of 

 states from Minnesota through Maine and extensively in Canada and 

 Alaska, with fingers of distribution extending southward in the Rocky 

 and Appalachian Mountains (Hall 1981), which suggests the animals 

 need boreal conditions. However, studies involving the extensive use 

 of pitfall traps have documented that S. hoyi is more widely distributed 

 and occupies a wider range of habitats in the southeastern part of its 

 geographic distribution than it does elsewhere. In Virginia, pygmy 

 shrews have been found in at least 20 counties, including seven counties 



Brimleyana 21:87-90 December 1 QQ4 87 



